News from Kandalaya

Spam classification spreadsheet for Spamass-Milter users

  perldoc spamtune.pl
          

High-security mail relay server setup for HOT Telecommunications

VishwaKarma 2.0 stable test release available

• [Feature]: Tested on Red Hat 7.2.
• [Feature]: Notifications on changes effected by resellers, domain owners and users.
• [Enhancement]: Many cleanups and minor changes.

VishwaKarma 2.0 Beta8 released

• [Feature] Works on Red Hat 7.1 systems. This and the use of vm-pop3d (under) are the biggest changes in Beta8.
• [Enhancement] Has a proper LDAP schema for systems which support it. Don't try using the schema in RH 6.2, the OpenLDAP 1.x server won't recognise it.
• [Feature] Have done away with gnu-pop3d and substituted vm-pop3d in its place. The new POP server is properly patched and will build on multiple platforms, unlike my gnu-pop3d implementation which only compiled on RH 6.2. In addition, vm-pop3d supports UIDL (client-side message tracking) and logs messages which can be used by a POP-Before-SMTP service.
• [Bugfix] A potentially dangerous bug in the regex code in doApache in system.pl has been fixed.
• [Enhancement] Fixed quota routines to handle setquota arguments in Red Hat 7.1.
• [Enhancement] More FAQ's answered.

Kandalaya signs training contract with Hughes Software Systems

Kandalaya has been retained by M/S Hughes Software Systems (a subsidiary of Hughes Network Systems) for extensive training in:

• GNU/Linux programming
• Basic and Advanced C and C++ Languages
• CORBA development
• Rational Rose

VishwaKarma 2.0 being tested preparatory to release

• [Feature] All reports have been completed. The list now includes Server Owner summary and detail reports, Reseller summary and detail reports and Domain summary report. There is no need for a Domain detail report since the summary is detailed enough.
• [Bugfix] Quotas in reports work as advertised. Minor changes in the quota-getting routines.

• [Bugfix] Delete Mailing List function works again.
• [Feature] Frontpage administration at domain level (domain owner can enable/disable FP at her discretion). Needs FP feature to be enabled for the domain at domain creation/modification time.
• [Feature] JSP (Jakarta-Tomcat) administration at domain level. All as above for FP.
• [Feature] Summary and detail reports for server owner. More reports (reseller and domain owner) on the way.
• [Bugfix] Domain menu now shows appropriate buttons for domain owner, reseller and server owner.

• [Bugfix] List add will not re-add an existing list.
• [Enhancement] List details page shows number of members in the list.
• [Feature] FrontPage support. Enable or disable FrontPage for domains through VishwaKarma now!
  Tested with FrontPage extensions version 4.0.
• [Enhancement] FAQ enhancements.

• [Feature] All modified system files are backed up in /tmp by date
• [Enhancement] Delete Mailing List button has large warning
• [Bugfix] Possible now for a reseller to modify a domain even when she has the maximum domains permitted her already in place
• [Enhancement] Uppercase user inputs in domain names and user ID's are automatically converted to lowercase
• [Feature] Find domain button for server owner to enable her to quickly find the reseller for a given domain
• [Feature]VishwaKarma Frequently Asked Questions answered! (Download the SGML Source)

After much discussion with hosting company representatives to define ideal set of features, Kandalaya is set to release VishwaKarma 2.0, the GPL Web-hosting Control Panel.

New features which have been implemented in 2.0 Beta include:

• The promised all-new security model. Much better control on user inputs and single sign-on model for authentication (includes auto-logout after 15 minutes of inactivity).
• Limits per reseller on maximum number of domains and per domain on maximum number of e-mail users
• Default IP addresses per server, per reseller
• More information capture (e.g. e-mail addresses)
• mod_perl integration

The following features have been integrated but not tested yet; they will be present in the final release of 2.0:

• Mailing list management. Done!
• Server Owner, Reseller and Domain Owner notifications on database changes
• Reports. Done!
• Support for external programs for:
  • Web-based file management
  • JSP admin. Done!
  • MySQL admin. Done!
  • FrontPage admin. Done!
  • Web page access management
  • Web Counter admin
  • Form Mail admin

You can download a copy of VishwaKarma 2.0 Beta1 here|/a>. Note: This is a testing release only!

Please contact us if you'd like to help in writing an automatic installer and/or identifying packages to handle the ``external programs'' listed above.

Kandalaya completes migration project for Informatics, Sri Lanka

Kandalaya was invited by one of Sri Lanka's largest IT players, Informatics, to streamline their internal and external IT support operations. The scope of the project included

• Migration of over 300 users from Netscape Messaging Server running on Unix to Linux
• Spam control
• Open Relay control and removal from blacklists
• Security setup
• Mail server seperation for internal and external clients with fallback arrangements
• Internal system administrator training

Kandalaya has successfully completed this project and is looking for a long-term relationship with Informatics in the Linux and security consulting fields.

Work starts on VishwaKarma version 2.0

VishwaKarma version 2.0 is in the offing, with many new features. Some of these features include:

• Completely re-written authentication code using sessions, cookies and strong cryptography
• More attractive user interface with graphics, icons and more options
• Bug fixes from v1.1 (and introduction of many new bugs :-)
• Contact information for server owners and resellers and notification on lower-level activities
• Reports!
• Control (maximum domains per reseller, maximum e-mail addresses per domain)
• IP address fixing
• Integration into mod_perl for much faster access

Work is already in progress on VishwaKarma v2.0. Please send us a mail if you'd like to be notified when the new version comes out or if you'd like to help in development.

VishwaKarma, the Web Hosting Control Panel version 1.1 released

Version 1.1 of VishwaKarma is mostly a bugfix release.

Changes from version 1.0

IP and Autonomous System Number (ASN) Registry bug reported

The top-level IP and ASN Registries display DES-encrypted passwords to anyone who asks. With advances in brute-force DES decryption, this makes them open to attack by anyone who has a fast computer. We reported this bug and a simple password-gathering and preparing program to BUGTRAQ

The discussion, program and correspondence with the registries are available on the Miscellaneous page

Presentations by Raju Mathur at IT.COM Linux Conference in Bangalore

Raju Mathur of Kandalaya made presentations on ``Linux for ISP's'' and VishwaKarma at the Linux Conference stream in Bangalore. This was organised to coincide with the IT.COM being held in Bangalore at the same time.

The presentations are available in Star Office format from the Presentations page.

VishwaKarma, the GPL Web Hosting Control Panel released

Kandalaya releases version 1.0 of VishwaKarma, a free Web-Hosting Control Panel for GNU/Linux systems.

More details on the VishwaKarma page